“Why do you care?”Her words are as slicing as barbed wire.
Coming over here was a mistake even if I knew I had to try.“I just want to help.”
“It’s too late for you to give a shit about me, Sadie Prescott.Leave me the fuck alone,” Livvy snarls, like I just offered her a bag of garbage.
“Miss?”a police officer approaches us.“I understand you live here?”
“Not anymore,” Livvy says, her throat crackling with laughter.
The police officer looks to me.“And you are?”
“No one,” Livvy says before I can answer.“No one at all.”
“Where are your parents, miss?”
“Paris,” Livvy answers dully.
A hand rests on my shoulder.I turn to find my mother.“Why don’t you go home?I’ll make sure she’s okay.”
Livvy is on her feet.“I don’t need any of you!I’ve lived three houses down from you my entire life.You don’t get to throw on thePrescotts to the rescuecape now, like you suddenly give a fuck!Nothing’s changed.My parents aren’t home.They’reneverhome.And you’ve never opened your door to me.Or made sure I was okay.Not untilnow, when everyone’s watching.Screw you!I don’t need anything from your fucking family!”
A car pulls up behind the police tape.
The police officer attempts to ask her more questions.“Myfriendis here.”She flips him the middle finger as she strides by.“Good luck finding my parents.”
Oren rolls down the driver’s-side window.A shiver runs through me.
“C’mon,” Mom coaxes with an arm around my shoulders.
“Ma’am, could I talk to you a moment?”the officer asks.
I keep walking toward Gavin while Mom stays behind to speak with him.There’s a red pickup behind him withReeves Constructionwritten on the side.I stand next to Gavin and cross my arms, the arctic temperatures encroaching on me now that I’m further away from the house.
“I don’t know, Hal.No one was supposed to be home.”
I freeze when I overhear the driver’s deep voice, focusing all of my attention on the conversation behind me and not the chaos surrounding us.“Of course I looked.There’s no footage.The cameras were turned off earlier tonight.”After a moment.“Not by any of my men.They don’t know how.”I swear I can hear Hal’s rage from here.“I got it.I know what’s at stake, but I can’t see how we’re at fault.”
Jonathan was cleared from hurting that guy from Greenfield a few months ago because of the cameras Hal uses on his work sites.
If the cameras were turned off inside the Holisters’ home before the fire…
“What are you thinking?”Gavin asks.“Whatever it is, stop.I can tell you’re about to do something stupid.”
I spin around and run back to our house.
“I knew it!”Gavin says, running after me.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Get out!”
“Where are we going?”Gavin demands, shutting the passenger door.
I don’t have time for this.With a groan between clenched teeth, I shift the car into reverse.
“Tell me what the hell’s going on, Sadie.Or I’ll call Mom to tell her you’re running away and have kidnapped me.”
I shoot him a side-eye like he’s insane.“That doesn’t make any sense.And how do you have your phone?”
